Double claw or grip device.



' No. 722,257. PATENTED MAR. 10, 19.03.

H. SHEELER.

DOUBLE CLAW 0R GRIP DEVICE.

APPLICATION TILED OUT. 13, 1902. H0 MODEL.

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UNTTEE STATES ATE T OEETQE.

HARVEY SHEELER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

DOUBLE CLAW OR GRIP DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 722,257, dated March 10, 1903.

Application filed October 13,1902. $erlal lTo.12'7|104- (No modeld To all whom it may concern;

Beit known that LHARVEY SHEELER, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Double Claw or Grip Device, of which the following is a full, clear, and precise explanation, reference being bad to the drawings accompanying and making a part of this specification.

Said device pertains to the hitching or connecting together in a firm but readily-removable manner of opposite portions of a chain or like implement and in such a relation as shall receive the stress when the portions so connected are subjected to tension.

A marked instance of the use of my said device and with decided advantage as compared With other expedients resorted to under the same conditions is in the operation of moving buildings according, especially, to the peculiar method I have myself employed and which I have reserved as the subject of another application for United States Letters Patent, which application was filed October 13, 1902, and bears Serial No. 127,102. Inasmuch as the utility of mydevice is distinct in that use and its operative features readily appear in such connection I have selected a view of my claw or grip when employed in said method for one of the drawings to be of service in illustrating the device covered by this application.

It will be understood that in the operation of moving a building, as indicated in Figure I, a cross-bolster is made use of in the rear of the building to resist the propelling-screws which bear against the same at various points throughout its length. It is evident that the strains against this bolster inflicted by the several screws will vary in relative intensity according to the differing weights of the mass to be moved at the several bearing-points. A building that is being moved without disarranging its contents, for instance, will present unequal resistance as compared with a building that is homologous in all respects, or let there be massive integral steel and masonry vaults or irregularly-located chimneys to be carried along as a part of the building and it is manifest that the strains upon the said bolster and its retaining members at different points will be greatlydisproportioned. Nevertheless it is of the highest importance that there be no yielding among these members, and especially a yielding that is neither simultaneous nor in equal degree, and the need and importance, therefore, of securing a practicable fastening for said bolster that shall reduce the danger of slipping or yielding when under strain are appreciated by all who are familiar with the art. Heretofore said bolster or resisting-buttress has been held in place by passing or winding chains about or connected with the same and around projecting timbers in the cribwork in advance thereof. Inasmuch, however, as in order that they may not become bent when wound around said timbers the chains employed must necessarily be those with short links only there has been no opportunity of making the final fastening by hooking the chain into its own links, and consequently any fastening of the kind described has been by some sort of knot with the chain itself. This, however, though more efficient when one chain was involved, by no means furnished a form of fastening where the support .of a series of chains is required and to the same relative degree. A knot or tie in one chain is rarely made with the same closeness as another nor is any such knot so tight but that it will yield under pressure. So, too, when fastenings are made in this way difficulty is often experienced in unloosening the same and delays caused in consequence.

It is the purpose and object of my present invention to supply a claw or grip for uses of the nature specified that shall make it possible to quickly and effectively tie a chain to itself, however short its links may be, and to as readily free the same from and readjust it to such engagement. 1 accomplish this purpose by the simple device and instrument I show in the drawings, wherein similar parts are designated by the same letters.

Fig. I is a side elevation of a portion of the cribwork under a building, wherein a chain is represented as fastened to itself by my said device. Fig. 11 is a perspective view of said device.

In the drawings, K is the claw proper, which is made up of a piece of any suitable material and strain qualities for the special conditions in which it is to be used. It consists of a fiat or bar-like central portion and oppositely-turned and bifurcated extremities made up of the hooks or fingersfandf. The space between said hooks or fingers should be calculated for the particular dimensions to which they are to be applied, and in the case of a chain, for instance, should be such as will enable them to vertically claw or straddle a given link without permitting the link next adjoining, which is thereby clasped behind said fingers, to escape through said space.

T, Fig. I, is a timber interposed crosswise beneath the building against which propelling-screws P P closely abut. Said screws at their other ends likewise abut against a cross-timber or bolster B, which is laid on said cribwork at such distance from the timber T as will afford advantageous play for the screws P P. Through the bolster B at each extremity eyebolts E are passed and locked thereto, through which eyebolts strain-chains G are passed and carried forward and around one of the cross transverse timbers of the cribwork beneath the building to be moved. The ongoing and incoming portions of the chains 0 thus carried around such transverse timber are now firmly but removably connected one to the other by simply grappling said portions, respectively, between the fingers of said claw, so that said fingers shall in each case grasp and be in bearing with a transverse link of the chain. In this manner a complete coupling is made that will afford an unyielding and uniform bitch, but which 

